CatholicSaints.Info

Blessed Teresa Maria Mastena

photograph of Blessed Teresa Maria Mastena, date unknown, photographer unknown; swiped off Wikimedia Commons Also known as

Maria Pia Mastena
Mother Maria Pia
Sister Passitea of the Child Jesus

Memorial

28 June

Profile

Eldest of five children of Giulio Mastena, a grocer, and Maria Antonia Casarotti, an elementary school teacher. Raised in a pious family; one brother was a priest, another tried to be, and a sister became a tertiary. Received First Communion on 19 March 1891, during which she made a private vow of chastity. Received Confirmation on 29 August 1891. Feeling a call to religious life, she tried to take the veil at age 14, but was considered too young. At age 17 she joined the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy in Verona, Italy. On 24 October 1903 she made her profession, and received the name Sister Passitea of the Child Jesus.

In the cloister she was known for strict adherence to the rules, and devotion to the Eucharist, to the Passion of Jesus, and to his Holy Face. However, she soon began to realize that the cloistered life was not for her, and she returned to service as head-mistress of the school in Miane, Italy. She was transferred to schools in Carpesica, Italy, and then to San Fior, Italy. In 1930 in San Fior she founded the Institute of Sisters of the Holy Face with the mission to “propagate, repair and restore Jesus’ gentle image in souls”. On 8 December 1936 the Institute was canonically erected as a diocesan Congregation, and the first ten members made their perpetual vows, and Mother Maria Pia was appointed Superior General, a position she held the rest of her life.

Born

7 December 1881 in Bovolone, Verona, Italy as Teresa Maria Mastena

Died

during the evening of 28 June 1951 in Rome, Italy of a heart attack while working to start a new house of the Institute
interred in the chapel of the Institute convent in San Fior, Italy